I am so amused by the villains "It's all Stark's fault"...
For Tony was literally disinterested in working in the office. He would sit in his basement and climb in cars or drink and sleep with women. He signed whatever documents Pepper gave him without even reading them. Most of his work was on Pepper. He made her CEO in the second part, and not to say that her work has become more, because she already did all of Tony's work. And knowing all this...
The villain who's mad about Tony looks so funny.
Like: " Stark fired me!"
and my brain: "Pepper fired you."
But do you know why more than one villain would not have brought Pep? Because she'd already saved Stark's ass. And she was the only one who could really kick ass, humiliate. A lot of people in the office might be gossiping about Tony, but no one put Pepper on it. After all, everyone knew that if you bring Pep, there will be problems. The only person who could piss her off was Tony. But they were friends, and she could piss him off in return.
So any villain who has pritenzii should go through Pepper (but no one will do it), and not climb to Peter.